1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a delivery apparatus and a delivery method used, for example, in conjunction with a printing press.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a delivery conveyor of a web rotary press has been driven by a dedicated motor. To facilitate handling of signatures in a subsequent step, the signatures always need to be delivered, while being arranged in an overlapping state with a constant spacing of 20 to 50 mm provided between the front ends of the adjacent signatures. If the signatures do not overlap and there is a clearance between the signatures, a jam detector installed downstream in the direction of delivery erroneously detects a jam. To avoid this erroneous detection, it is necessary to synchronize the drive speed of the delivery conveyor with the drive speed of the printing press. For this purpose, it has been required to use a motor whose speed can be varied in the range of 120 to 30,000 mm, namely, in a 250-fold speed range from a low speed to a high speed.
Such a delivery apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1999-11769.
The conventional delivery conveyor of a web rotary press, as described above, uses a motor whose speed is variable in a broad range. This has posed the problem of necessitating an expensive motor having a large capacity.